Vendor Roundup 1/8: MRV, NSN, Huawei

Here's a quick look at three interesing news items from the vendors, including a new product from MRV, a 100G upgrade by NSN, and a submarine cable launch by Huawei.

MRV Communications has introduced a 40G optical interconnect solution aimed at interconnecting data centers. The 40G Fiber Driver module takes connectivity from a few hundred meters to 10-15km, and is aimed at enabling media conversion and distance extension. Bigger, affordable pipes in and between data centers are critical to scaling in the cloud of course.

The optical networks division of Nokia Siemens Networks is helping the largest mobile operator in Korea upgrade its backbone to 100G and increasing overall capacity to 8Tbps per fiber. SK Telecom put NSN's 40G gear in a year and a half ago, expecting to do just this when the time came. Few places in the world are as connected as South Korea, so I'm only surprised they waited this long. NSN's optical division is in the process of being sold to Marlin Equity Partners.

And the Mediterranean has a new cable system. Huawei Marine and the Libyan International Telecom Company yesterday launched the Silphium system, which hooks up Darnah, Libya to Chania, Greece across 425km of unrepeatered submarine cable. The initial capacity of 1.2Tbps is with 10Gbps gear, with 40/100Gbps upgrades available. The connection gives Libya another route to access the rest of the global internet, via Greece's OTEGLOBE.